I feel the air around you, it's kinda closing in-Characters: West Coast Avengers! Setting: L.A. then who knows?Content: Zombie violence and stuffSummary: It's time to abandon ship

What they wanted from her was impossible and Wanda had known that, even when she'd offered, but she'd had to because it was the best she could do and back then- a little near to two weeks and it seemed so long ago already- there had still been hope. The city of Los Angeles had taken applaudbly proactive measures, after all. As early as the sixteenth they'd closed down their school districts and begun evacuations on the nineteenth, one of the first cities in the nation to actually do so. The LA Emergency Management Department and Health Department set up emergency evacuation centers with aid from FEMA and the Red Cross and urged citizens to leave the city. As soon as it appeared that things were worse than officials initially thought, the refugees who sought safety in centers were rounded up and moved to a massive shelter complex in the middle of the city with access to a hospital and plenty of rations. The boundaries were closed off with military personnel to guard them and new refugees allowed in at orderly check points where doctors were on hand to check every newcomer for traces of the virus. Those unfortunate enough to be infected were taken into quarantine- at first.

The early days were anxious but organized and it actually seemed as if there was the slimmest chance of riding this out with the promise of a cure in the near future and the assurance of health officials and city officials that medical science was working feverishly on the task all around the globe. The flood of evacuees soon became a trickle as the city around the center shut down and the infected and reanimated dead swelled to greater numbers. In the beginning they tried not to take out the infected and only the walking dead, but even that was not enough. Soon, there was no choice then but to stop sparing the infected and protect the shelter, with guns and artillery and, at the request of the center leaders, the aid of superheroes. Mutants and metahumans volunteered, offering everything from healing to guard duty to whatever else they could help with.

That was where the Avengers came in and, after a failed attempt to heal the infection that ended in an unfortunate and grotesque human combustion, Wanda made her offer to shield the compound, instead. She stretched a dome of energy high overhead, dropping it at hour intervals through the night and day so that she could rest and the people inside could get some fresh air. The work was incredibly draining and Wanda spent night and day in a small room at the top of the tallest of the evacuation compounds building, visited by shelter administrators and the other Avengers offering her news. Wanda was too focused, and too exhausted, to try to hold out any kind of hope for the promised cure that seemed more distant with every day that passed.

There was no hope left now, no hope for that cure and maybe only a small chance of survival. In mere minutes the shelter went from a safe haven to a death trap. All it took was one bite, a single bite to a doctor studying the infected the compound still had kept in quarantine. The infection spread like wildfire as he bit his colleagues who turned and started infecting others. It was all they could do to get the sirens on and then it was sheer panic, all of that careful planning crumbling instantly.

The wails of warning sirens snapped Wanda from a stupor, her hands aglow. Footsteps pounded outside the door of her little room and she lurched to her feet, ignoring her exhaustion and opening the door to peer into the corridor. "What's going on?" she asked a breathless man running by. He paused only long enough to shout over his shoulder, "Infection inside!" and then he was gone round a corner. Wanda dropped her shield immediately, knowing that what had before been a protective barrier had now become a trap for the people in the center. What she had to do now was help to get the refugees out. The moment her shield was down, Wanda knew there wasn't going to be much help she could give. With the constant flow of energy leeching her own, it had been only her powers keeping her from being overwhelmed by fatigue and her breaks over the past several days hadn't been enough. Flattening herself against a wall, Wanda wobbled unsteadily on her feet as a group rushed passed her and tried not to collapse. She needed to find the others and they had to escape.

"Get back! I said get back damn it!" Screeched Hawkeye as he pulled back his bow string. The creatures were inside alright. A mob of 'em were staring down at him with more on the way. From behind he could hear the remaining normals screaming and tearing at each other to get away blindly. All innocent people with panic so clear in their voices. But, god help them there was no way out. A massive mystical shield covered the compound on all sides. It was a last ditch effort by the Avengers and now they were trapped like rats. At the time it had seemed like the best solution to the epidemic. The city council and even the military agreed. They just had to give survivors a chance for a cure. Not anymore. That was clearly all over. The house of cards fell and the monsters pushed forward looking for human flesh.

A thin defensive line of the National Guard stood in position in front of the crowd. They were Barton's last detachment and it was all that was left between disaster and salvation. As the dead drew near regretfully, Clint gave the order to open fire. But it wasn't enough. There were too many of them. That was when the mystical shield covering the compound suddenly fell. It was Wanda of course. Now they had an opening. Clint shifted his gaze to his men and began barking out orders. "Captain! Get these people out of here! Leave a third, we will cover your tracks. Go!"

The line broke with the refugees just as Hawkeye turned and fired on the creatures. An exploding arrow shook the compound as the dead burned alive. The smell of their stench turned Barton's stomach. Maybe some of these people could get out of the city. Maybe they would live. He had that at least.

Pietro had wanted to leave from the moment things had started to get serious. He wanted to hide them away. He wanted to make sure Wicked was all right. He wanted the reassurance of the other Avengers. Ten thousand conflicting needs, and he couldn't fulfill one of them trapped in Wanda's bubble. The urge to get out, to run, to move- it never left him, and now- as shouting and screaming ran out, he lifted his head to see the barrier fade- it had all been for nothing.

He took off like a shot, scanning for Wanda. She'd be exhausted now, and right when they needed her to be strong. Once he found her he scooped her up, heedless of any protests. "Where's Barton and VanDyne?"

"I don't know," she answered, as soon as she heard the voice because he'd been moving too fast for her to actually see him. One second she'd been falling and the next her brother was carrying her, out of the seclusion she'd been in for days and down out into the blinding sun and horror in the compound. Wanda wriggled out of Pietro's arms but held onto him for support, staring around in disbelief.

There were bodies everywhere and people shrieking as they were torn to pieces. Even as she watched them die, moments later they were on their feet again, groaning as they joined the hordes of monsters overrunning the save haven. Wanda couldn't help but think that this was at least partially her fault. If not for those few minutes before she'd known what was going on and kept up her shields maybe some of these people would have escaped. Escaped out into a world of the dangerous undead, probably, but it had still been a chance they hadn't had. She didn't have long to dwell on it and this certainly was not the time to do it. The refugees and staff still alive and trying to flee were the ones that needed help now.

It wasn't hard to spot Clint, shooting his exploding arrows into a crowd of monsters (how else could they think of them now? Even the ones who had still be alive were out and trying to rip people's throats out). It also wasn't hard to miss the fire that started spreading directly after he shot. Leave it to Clint to leave as much destruction as possible in his wake.

A small streak buzzed from out of a rather large swarm, making a bee-line for Clint. Eyes wide, Jan paused, hovering when she came to the twins.

"I thought you had this under control?? Where'd the magic thingy go?" she panted, grabbing onto Pietro and tugging him along towards Clint, trusting him to pull Wanda after him, zapping snapping teeth as she flew.

One had to start wonder if this was really the end of things. Line after line of these monsters continued to charge. It became pretty obvious these things weren't going to just tire out. Sadly Clint wasn't so lucky. He was running out of energy and his arrows were growing thin. He reached for a fallen gun just as one of the walkers came up on him.

There just wasn't enough time to react. The creature jumped him and Hawkeye went down struggling to keep himself from getting scraped. If just one of these guys wounded him it was all over. Needless to say, this wasn't how he wanted to go! God, more of them were coming over and circling them now. This wasn't supposed to be it! "Damn it! NO! Get off me you sons of bitches..ARGH!"

It was difficult to find fault with Jan's succinct but very accurate assessment of the situation. This was really bad and Wanda figured it could only get worse. Drained as she was, Wanda would still have to do something, especially after Jan's accusation. She did have this under control until someone else let themselves get bitten. The origin came from inside, there was no way something had made it through her barrier from outside. That part, at the very least, wasn't Wanda's fault.

"The magic thingee-" Wanda began, a little defensively, in answer to Jan's question and raised a thin magical barrier between the flames from Clint's arrows and the retreating backs of fleeing civilians, "Was trapping everyone." The energy holding back the fire wasn't going to last long, but the people trying to escape wouldn't have to add burning to death to their list of dangers and the barrier would hinder the lumbering dead.

Wanda turned her attention from the fire and back to Clint when she heard him yell and her first instinct was to fire off a bolt of energy at the creature on top of him, not focusing on what exactly it would do but just on hitting it so it would get off him. The monster exploded outwards. Oops. Clint was alive, Wanda would argue later. The gore covering him was beside the point.

Pietro tugged Wanda along, eyes wide. His instinct was pushing him to simply grab her and make a run for it, swing back for the others, and figure out what to do after that. But there were all these civilians. He winced as he saw a man get his throat ripped out, and let go of Wanda long enough to rush through the fray to collect Clint.

"Thought you had an arrow for everything," he muttered, breathing heavily.

"Sorry about that," Wanda muttered, staring at the clumps of flesh and sprays of blood all over Clint. There were more important things to worry about right now than a shower. The number of civilians out here had dwindled, either escaped, dead, or dying. The dead and dying meant more monsters, though, and not a lot of time to get out. They'd come here to protect people, though, and for all that Wanda had felt so helpless upstairs, now that she was down here she remembered that they were still the Avengers. Avengers didn't run from a fight. They could make their escape once they were sure the compound was cleared. She didn't wait to check with their leader.

"Jan, can you fly up high and see if there's anyone cornered or trying to hide anywhere out here?" Wanda asked and then turned to her brother. "Pietro, would you make a run through the buildings and get people out?" She asked and added an assurance, "I'll be fine here with Clint for a little while." The pair of them could try to keep a path clear to the exits and collect anyone still stuck outside within the compound gates.

Jan made a face at the sight of Clint, but nodded, saluting and taking off into the air, while beneath her Pietro shot off in a blur. "On it," she promised cheerfully, thought it sounded a little forced. Man she didn't like this. Bad guys. Bad guys she could handle. Punch 'em in the face, lock them up. Easy. But this was different.

The bio bomb of rotten flesh just about rocked Clint unconscious. He lay very still for a moment and then abruptly started chocking and coughing. God, it felt like he'd swallowed some of that creature. Was it in his eyes? Fuck! He tried rolling over and felt his stomach churning ready to vomit at any moment. He could be infected now. There could some of that monster inside him about to take over. He'd seen the reports and generally knew what happened. Nausea settled in then and a pounding headache took over. Was that Wasp just now flying by? He looked around still very ill and on the brink of conscious and thought he saw Pietro or Wanda or something. Fuck, he just wanted to find a hole and crawl in to die. There wasn't a whole lot of energy left in him. The defense of compound had taken everything he'd had.

Okay so Clint was apparently less alive than Wanda had initially thought. It was just a bit of nastiness sprayed over him, he'd taken a lot more and stayed on his feet. Well, everyone had a point and apparently this was his. He would have to be tended to before Wanda could even think of doing anything else, which was unfortunate since she was drained and the fire was burning out and the dead were making their way closer.

Wanda guided Clint to his knees and quickly sopped up some the blood and flesh on his face with the hem of her cloak, wiping it out of his eyes and away from his mouth. She knew exactly what he was going through with this, having managed to do it to herself once ages ago in New Orleans. She knew it wasn't pleasant. "Come on, Clint, you're fine, all right?" she told him as calmly as she could though there was an edge of panic creeping into her voice. She hadn't wanted to have to play the leader but thrust in the position there was no other choice. "You're fine," she said with more conviction, "You'll be okay. You'll be perfectly all right. We need you, come on, Clint."

At the sound of Jan's voice Wanda swiveled her head, lips pursed as she stared between the barely conscious Hawkeye and the direction Jan's voice had come from. There were children, Clint would understand. Pietro would be back soon, he could try to get Clint back on his feet. "Stay here," she murmured- as if he was really going anywhere in this state. Wanda sucked in a deep breath and focused a little dome of energy around Clint's slumped form in hopes that she could protect him at least for a little while while she went to help the civilians.

"Where?" she asked when she reached Jan, staring around for the hidden kids.

Pietro cleared the way through the building, finding few left alive that he could help, though there had been a few that had begged for death. When he darted back out a cheek was smeared with blood, and his hair tinged pink on one side, looking paler than usual.

He stooped by Clint, giving his cheek a light smack, brow creased with what might have been concern. "Come on. Now's not the time, Barton. Keep your head," he muttered, holding his gaze, and whisking his away to higher ground.

He ran back, and moments later appeared before Wanda with a child under either arm.

"Perfect, darling," she offered a weak smile. "Got everyone from inside?" She hardly had to ask, just as she didn't have to tell him to get the kids to safety. Pietro could have it all done before she'd even blink, she didn't need to worry on that front. She watched the Wasp fly off to find any more survivors and Wanda went to return to Clint- only to find that he'd been moved- so she waited for her brother to return and take her up to wherever he'd left Clint.

The trio waited on a rooftop, Wanda offering her shoulder to support Clint, until Janet returned to report the news (that Wanda wasn't sure was good or grim) that there didn't seem to be anymore living civilians in the compound. "How do you want to do this?" she asked her companions. "I can try to teleport us or maybe Pietro can run us back one by one?"

Oh God, he hoped not. They had enough problems at the moment and he was barely staying awake there as it was. Clint refused to become one of those things. He was not going to fucking go out like that. "I'm ok. Just needed to catch my breath." He winced and broke away from Wanda so that she could do her mystic dance. Slowly, he lowered down to the ground and took a knee in the dirt. "Wasp, Pietro get everyone still alive.." Clint stopped short and started hacking. He waved a free arm at them to do whatever and then went for his bow. Not about to leave that baby behind. It was a master's level work. You didn't just make those in an hour, it took years! "Bring the kids in close. Now get us the hell out of here."

Maybe getting the hell out of there was the worst thing they could have done. Wanda would mull it over in retrospect, curse her own stupidity, blame herself even more, hope they understood. You went in blind. A teleportation was never a sure thing and the distance between LA and the West Coast headquarters was enough that she had make a single stop for a jump to the building. Wanda could know where she needed to be, she could imagine it, she could get there. What she couldn't account for was what else was in that place and in this case it was zombies, a huge herd of them, and the Avengers and a handful of civilians they'd rescued landed right in the middle of it. It should have only been a momentary pause, she could have got them right out with a deep breath and a focus within seconds of hearing that first guttural growl. She couldn't account for what anyone else with them would do, either, and when a man they'd rescued darted away in terror she couldn't just go.

"Stop!" she shrieked and reached out but it was too late, the horde had a hold of the man and was ripping him to shreds before she could get the energy barrier around them to protect them. This was horrifying, even worse than the refugee center. Wanda was running out of energy fast, she needed a moment to shore it up, to refocus. A moment was a luxury they didn't have.

Nope, too late. The man was gone and out of anyone's reach. Worst of all he was bitten. They could all clearly hear his screams. Without stopping to think or consider the options at hand, Clint moved for an arrow. What could he say? It must have stemmed from his darker days. Back to a time when he wouldn't thought twice about what needed to be done. Sadly, today was turning out to be a bit too familiar. Before Wanda had time to place down the shield, an arrow left Clint'd bowstrings and settled deep in the man's skull. At least this way his end was quick. Who could say the same would end up being their fate? In this dead world there were no rules. Anyone could die at any given moment. It was just his time.

Pietro would have darted after the man if he hadn't had the children in his arms, once perched on either hip now, and they hid their faces against his chest, shrill screeches hurting his ears as he turned to try and shield them from the sight.

"Faster Wanda," he pleaded. The children had a vice like grip on him, he couldn't put them down if he tried, and he didn't like being in this position of relying on the someone else to get them out of this.

It took Wanda a second to even process what Clint was doing and even then it was still horrifying but at least he'd put the poor man out of his misery. God, this place, this world. Pietro's plea was a reminder that there were still live people who were depending on her to keep them from a position where Clint might have to shoot them in the head and so she grit her teeth and closed her eyes.

"Not helping, darling," she hissed at Pietro and took deep even breaths. The things were scrabbling at her shield, she could feel them pressing against the tenuous energy and she knew it was about to break. When it did the group disappeared in a flash and reappeared on a cliff beside the Malibu house. Wanda heaved a sigh and reeled away from the others, trying to stay on her feet, exhausted and relieved but still, she'd got them here.